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Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 - December 4, 1993) was an American musician, composer, and political activist. He is most famous for his music, which is described as bizarre and avant-garde. He is also noted as being incredibly prolific, releasing 62 albums over the course of 27 years. Early years: 1940 - 1963 Childhood Frank Vincent Zappa was born on December 21, 1940 in Baltimore, Maryland, from parents Francis Vincent Zappa (or Frank Vincent Zappa Sr., but Frank was named Frank, not Francis). Francis was a small-time musician, being able to play acoustic guitar. Francis was a scientist from the University of Chapel Hill in North Carolina. Francis' job, an aircraft engineer forced the Zappas to move very frequently. In 1944, the Zappas moved to Florida, and in 1946, back to Maryland. When they moved back to Maryland, they lived near a factory that produced mustard gas, which Frank believes caused his frequent sinus infections. However, this home didn't last long, as the family moved to where Francis' job was located - Monterey, California. Moving to the other side of the country is a decision that would last for the rest of Frank's life. In 1951, they settled in Monterey. Throughout 1952 and 1953, the Zappa would relocate to various locations throughout Southern California before settling in San Diego. Frank would have musical interest in the early 50s, because in 1953 he went to Keith McKillop's school for orchestral percussion. At a year-end concert, 13 year old Zappa performed his first orchestration, "Mice". Interest in music in the 50s Around 1954, the Zappas bought a phonogram, which kick-started Zappa's interest in music. In his early years, Zappa was attracted to R&B, doo-wop, and avant-garde composition, specifically Edgard Varase, which would soon become one of the young Zappa's idols. In San Diego, he was enrolled to high school, where he met other musicians and joined the band The Ramblers, an R&B / Blues band that got gigs, where Zappa played drums, instead of his iconic guitar. The group didn't last long. The Zappas moved Zappa to Mission Bay High School in 1955, and moved again to Lancaster in 1956. During these years of 1954 - 1956, Zappa started his giant R&B record collection. In 1957 Zappa formed the Blackouts, where Zappa once again played drums, and The Blackouts gained a small audience. The Blackouts is where he met long-time collaborator Motorhead Sherwood. Also in 1957 Zappa, for his birthday, got to place a long distance call to somewhere. Zappa wanted to call his idol, Edgard Varase. He didn't know where Varase lived however, so he guessed the weirdest place an artist like Varase would live, Greenwich Village, and Zappa was right. Unfortunately, Varase was in Europe, so his wife answered and told Zappa to call again when he got back. Varase did write a letter back to Zappa, and told Zappa to come visit when he was in New York. Zappa hung up the letter for the rest of his life, and while Zappa never got to meet Varase, this interaction was a pinnacle point in his life. At high school, Zappa met fellow avant-garde fan Don Van Vliet, who would become Captain Beefheart. Starting from 1954, Zappa wrote chamber music and other orchestral music for snare drum, like the aforementioned "Mice". Zappa was an artist, but he developed a talent for writing sheet music and started to develop a liking for more and more avant garde music like Charles Ives. Recording & orchestrations As a senior, Zappa was given the opportunity to perform some of his string quartet orchestrations, "Sleeping in a Jar" and "A Pound for a Brown (On the Bus)". In 1958, The Blackouts recorded some tracks, one of which appeared on The Lost Episodes - "The Blackouts". Earlier in the year, Zappa bought a guitar, which he described as "an archtop, f-hole, ugly motherfucker with the strings about a half-inch off the fingerboard." Vliet, Zappa, and his brother Bobby formed a small unnamed band and recorded two songs (which also appeared on The Lost Episodes) - "Lost In A Whirlpool" and "The Search For Tom Dooley". During this time Zappa also wrote his first printed sheet, "Waltz For Guitar". Zappa graduated and gained a friendship with teacher Don Cerveris in college, which Zappa left after one semester and formed a hatred for formal education. Cerveris had written a script for a Western film, and Zappa wrote the soundtrack. The money that Zappa got from writing the soundtrack bought him an electric guitar. Nothing came of the film until 1963, however, due to delays and setbacks. At the end of 1959, an out of school Zappa moved out and into an apartment south of Ontario, California (not Canada) with his girlfriend Kay Sherman. Sherman would, on December 28, 1960, become Zappa's first wife at the age of 20. They shortly moved to Sarasota, Florida where Zappa would audit a piece by Karl Kohn, and rent a White Strat, because he left his old one with his brother in Ontario. He had a hard time earning money, so he just barely could keep the guitar. Shortly after, he moved to Pomona in California. In 1961, Zappa joined the band The Boogie Men, his foray into lead guitar for a band. Zappa started writing bizarre rock n roll songs and avant-garde compositions, and scored a lot of famous Zappa songs today. That summer, he wrote the music to The World's Greatest Sinner, along with the song "The World's Greatest Sinner". During the 1961 - 1962 period Zappa had a lot of musical endeavors all going on at the same time. He had started a new band with some members of The Boogie Men and that didn't last very long. Zappa moved to Lancaster and formed a band with other assorted friends he had. Shortly after, Zappa moved to Cucamonga, California where he would meet Paul Buff, owner of Pal Studio. There, at Pal Studio, Zappa would record an early version of one of his most infamous songs, "Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance", and another idea titled "It's From Kansas". Those tracks would appear on later Zappa projects. In late 1961 to summer 1962, Zappa would join Joe Perrino & The Mellotones in a residency at Tommy Sandi's Club Sahara in San Bernardino, California. To get his music performed, Zappa created a various array of chamber ensembles and rock groups, along with the Pomona Valley Orchestra, where they performed "The World's Greatest Sinner". Zappa also briefly joined Booger Stories. In 1962, Buff, Zappa, and Ronnie Williams (of Booger Stories) formed The Masters, and they recorded a single, "16 Tons" b/w "Breaktime". The band, along with some others jammed in Don Preston's garage, where they auditioned for Channel 7 and other various outlets. It was at this time Zappa started producing and engineering records, like one from The Tornadoes. Also, at this time, Zappa would meet Ray Collins through some doo-wop groups Zappa liked, and they made some recordings of themselves which would appear on Joe's XMASage. "The World's Greatest Sinner" was also released in 1962. In 1963, Zappa would appear on The Steve Allen Show, supposedly a person who could "play bicycle". The 'song' he performed was called "Music for Two Bicycles & Low-Budget TV Orchestra". The Penguins, best known for their song "Earth Angel" recorded Zappa and Collins' "Memories of El Monte". Zappa, Vliet (now 'Captain Beefheart'), and others would form a band called the Soots, which, after a brief time rehearsing, they would audition for Dot Records, which would reject them for having "no commercial potential". That same year, Kay and Zappa would separate and, in 1964, divorce. Around this time Zappa built up an audience of fans of avant-garde music and orchestral works, and this was only perpetuated when Zappa appeared on a broadcast with an orchestra. Studio Z In 1963, Zappa bought Pal Studio in order to record his own music in large quantities. He did record a lot of music under 11 (known) monikers: Ron Roman, Baby Ray & The Ferns, Bob Guy, The Heartbreakers, Brian Lord & the Knights, Ned & Nelda, The Hollywood Persuaders, Mr Clean, The Rotations, Sin City Boys, and Loeb and Leopold. These 11 bands released Zappa/Collins singles, but during a police raid, most of the tapes were destroyed. The Mothers of Invention & Getting Big: 1964 - 1970 The Soul Giants Ray Collins, hot off the trails of the abandonment of Studio Z, decided to form an R&B band named The Soul Giants, where he would be the lead singer due to his vocal abilities. Collins wrote all of the songs for The Soul Giants for the 2 years they had been active. Zappa, since 1962, was touring in venues around California called The Muthers. In 1964, Zappa left and the group broke up. After a fight with Ray Collins, guitarist Ray Hunt left the group, leaving them without guitar. Zappa, also without a group, joined upon Collins' request. Zappa "hated" the name The Soul Giants and tried to change it to something suiting Zappa's style. Many failed names later and Zappa renamed the group The Mothers, ironically, on Mother's Day. The name is a shortened, censored version of "motherfuckers". The Mothers' early line up was Frank Zappa, Ray Collins, Jimmy Carl Black, Roy Estrada. Freak Out! The Mothers started performing in 1965 at various venues around California opening for other acts or performing on their own. They performed songs from Freak Out!' ''at the shows, along with other Collins and Zappa penned songs. The earliest shows from the Mothers are an unknown show in Pomona performing "The Phone Call". June 1966, performing "Plastic People", an early Mothers track. They were recording demos as early as 1964, but the only released / available ones are from 1965, released on '''Joe's Corsage. By this time they had mostly all of the songs written for Freak Out! and some songs from a follow-up to Freak Out!. Some tracks dated back to 1963, like "Anyway The Wind Blows". Most songs were written in 1965 and 1963 though, and some live staples they had were "Hungry Freaks, Daddy", "Trouble Every Day" (called More Trouble Every Day live), and "It Can't Happen Here". So, by this time, The Mothers had perfected these songs and a number of others. The album was named after the so called "freaks" of the time (hippies) that the group hated. Some also believe it's called that due to it's opening "Hungry Freaks, Daddy". The Mothers also added an "of Invention" to their name to the request of their record label. The album was an instant hit and gave the Mothers a fanbase that allowed them to tour and make money. The album was released on June 27, 1966 and was labeled as R&B, rock n roll, psychedelic rock, and experimental rock. The album had some doo-wop tracks on it as well. Anyways, it garnered a lot of attention towards the Mothers who started touring frequently to promote the album. Absolutely Free Not impressed with how he couldn't perfectly express his ideas, Zappa expanded the band's personnel by adding four new members - Bunk Gardner, Don Preston, Jim Fielder, and Billy Mundi, playing woodwinds, keyboards, rhythm guitar, and second drums respectively. Zappa, Collins, and Preston were all songwriters, but Zappa took the lead on these albums. He wrote every song by himself for the next album, including some live songs they were performing earlier ("Plastic People") and new ones. Zappa's idea for the album was to have two stories on each side of the album, as two "Underground Oratorios" - "Absolutely Free" and "The M.O.I. American Pageant". It was at this time Zappa wrote "King Kong" as well, a 20 minute epic that would soon become a concert regular. There were two singles released before the album - "Why Don'tcha Do Me Right?" and the concert regular "Big Leg Emma". The album was set for release at the end of 1966, but the album release date was put off until May 26, 1967. The album was also a success, and the suite "The Duke Of Prunes" also became a concert regular. Even though the album was half as long as Freak Out!, Absolutely Free was taken really well. The band didn't tour as much for Absolutely Free'. You could order a libretto for the album for $1, since there was no track information anywhere. Touring and ''Lumpy Gravy Shortly after '''Freak Out!'s release, a Capitol Records A&R requested an orchestral album done by Zappa. Though he wanted to record an album, he couldn't do anything on it because of his contract with Verve and MGM Records. So Zappa became a conductor for a group of session musicians, dubbed the "Abnuceals Emuukha Electric Symphony Orchestra". The entirety of Lumpy Gravy was written in eleven days and contained lavish orchestral movements. However, when it was released on August 7, 1967, MGM threatened to sue because of Zappa's involvement on the record. During this period, Zappa edited the piece to have spoken word bits and musique concrète bits, as well as songs from his pre-Mothers days. The Mothers started touring again while they were recording Lumpy Gravy's edited version and We're Only In it For the Money. We're Only in it For the Money ''and ''Cruising with Ruben and the Jets Zappa and his friends started splicing and editing the new edition of Lumpy Gravy' '' at about the same time as The Mothers finished recording '''We're Only In It For the Money. The new edition of Lumpy Gravy' ''was going to coincide with a project Zappa had while filming "Uncle Meat", a science fiction film. The project was called ''No Commercial Potential ''and it was going to be a series of album that were all related, and Zappa's idea was to "be able to splice up the tracks on each album and still get a cohesive album". The second '''Lumpy Gravy' ''was longer than the original version, being twice as long and containing more music from Zappa's career, specifically pre-Mothers works and even some Mothers works ("Take Off Your Clothes" You Dance). The first version of the album would later be re-released as '''Lumpy Gravy (Primordial). Anyways, in March 1967, The Mothers started collecting tracks that would be put on a third album, unrelated to Freak Out!' ''and '''Absolutely Free'. ''Around this time Zappa also married Gail Sloatman, his second and final wife. The untitled third album was going to be their best, and the Mothers concentrated their forces on creating something never heard before. However, before they started work on the album, Collins quit for a long period of time, stretching out to 1968, when he decided to rejoin. The group moved around quite a bit, due to their long and creative live shows, but settled in New York to record the album. Zappa took the lead of lead vocals, due to Collins' leave of absence. After the album was finished recording, the band took to an extended tour and the label decided to censor the album without Zappa's permission. The album was released on March 4, 1968. After the tour was finished, Zappa & Company finished editing the second edition of '''Lumpy Gravy, which came out on May 13, 1968. Zappa loved Lumpy Gravy, and called it his best music, his favorite album. Zappa was also infuriated that the album was censored, but the album was met with extremely positive reviews, and most call it Zappa's best work. The album criticizes hippie culture, and its album cover parodies The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Shortly after the release, Ray Collins joined the group again, and once The Mothers and the engineer started talking about the 50s and doo-wop music, the group started improvising some songs, which gave Zappa inspiration for an album. He and Collins wrote an entire album's worth of doo-wop songs, which quickly became a candidate for No Commercial Potential. Though Zappa hated 'love lyrics', he wrote them as a parody of the genre of doo-wop's lyrics, and shortly the album was completed in February 1968, but not released until December of 1968. Critical acclaim and Uncle Meat At the start of 1969, The Mothers' contract with Verve and MGM expired, so The Mothers teamed